161
given the identifiability of the referents from the context and the pragmatic arguments for the verbs.
197 + K
K K
K after that
live truly like.that ‘After that Jii-Mlii and Smelt-fish just lived like that.’
K K
K K
F + E
B +3 + E
F.C ND E+ ARR2RU,
8.3.7 Evaluation by narrator E
All three narratives contain examples of a narrator intrusion which I am placing in the discourse operation Evaluation by narrator. Each story contains different types of
referring expressions, usually more heavily coded for this discourse operation. In the Fish story, the narrator’s intrusion provides insider information about the
younger sister ‘committing suicide’. The description of Jii-Mlii killing herself 4QU continues to raise empathy for her. She kills herself by stabbing her body with the fish
bones she found near the water’s edge. These fish bones are from the fish Jii-Mpoon and the uncles killed. Clause 4QUc repeats the fact that Jii-Mlii is dead from the previous
clause and includes a right-dislocated, heavily coded referring expression, +
++. 4QU .
+ K K
K K
+ +
why still
awake ‘Why is Jii-Mlii still not awake?’
162 b.
K K
K K
+ 95
6;?X stab body from here
B5+ F E+
3 . 5+ E
+ 3 + .C
c. ++
+ ++
+ +
++ +++++
die 3S EVID DET sib.young 3S.POSS DEM3 EVID ‘Die she did, her younger sister, indeed’
[Fish 347-50] Section 8.1.8 provides a detailed description of the last few clauses of the Cow
story where the bull owner makes an excuse to leave the gathering. The final clause of this episode 4QQ is part of a topic chain which begins three clauses prior where the bull
owner is referred to as, ‘uncle who grazes the bull’. While this
latter referring expression represents a more heavily coded referring expression cf. §8.3.6, a zero subject within a topic chain is expected 4QQ.
4QQ K
K K
K in.reality
run return to house there
‘In reality the bull owner ran back home.’ [Cow 156] In one clause of the Life story the narrator addresses children in an indirect quote
200. It communicates the narrator’s evaluation at the end of a turbulent time in their history. Now the people of Cambodia could once again pursue happiness and their
children could go to school. The narrator addresses children who are coded with a reduplicated kinship term
‘child’. This is the normal way for an adult to address children, even if the children are not his own offspring.
200 + ++
+ +
+ +
+ VOC children children EXIST go
study go recite until to
EXIST
163 +
+ V0
do growth do big
along with approach now ‘Hey kids, children Let’s go study, go recite until you are big and grown up all
the way until nowadays.’ [Life 19]
8.3.8 Initiating utterance U
